Thursday, February 20, 2014

President Obama issued a personal, hand-written apology for his self-described “glib” remark that he made on January 30th,
concerning the pursuit of art history degrees and jobs at a
manufacturing plant in Wisconsin. The apology, which was recently made
public, was addressed specifically to University of Texas at Austin
Professor Ann Collins Johns after she submitted a comment through the
White House website. Every day, we see the power of advocacy in making a
difference. Thanks to citizen-advocates like Professor Collins Johns
and the 5,300 Arts Action Fund advocates who signed our online petition
to the President, our collective voices were heard.

Please know that Americans for the Arts Action Fund sent its petition
to the White House with our special thanks to the President for issuing
his apology. We also underscored our request for him to meet with arts
and economic policy experts, representing both the nonprofit and
for-profit arts industries, to brief him on the untapped potential of
these industries to help improve the economic growth, jobs creation, and
trade surplus of the United States.

Thank you for your involvement in the Americans for the Arts Action Fund.